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Thai Team Turmoil

Boonsak and top players quit association
By The Nation

In a revolt led by world No 12 Boonsak Ponsana, elite players and coaches have quit the Badminton Association of Thailand and threatened to leave the national team unless there is a change of associaฌtion executives.
A total of 12 national players and four coaches yesterday held a press conference on their decision to quit, citing their dissatisfaction with unsolved problems in the association and an unsatisfactory sponsorship deal arranged by the badminton's governing body.

Last month, BAT president Charoen Wattanasin announced the launch of a new team contract aimed at securing a improved players' deal in the form of performance related financial support.

In line with the deal, the BAT will this month sign a contract with Yonex to support Thai players in their preparations for major tournaments.

However, the players rejected Charoen's new contracts, saying that they preferred the option of negotiating independent sponsorship contracts.

Boonsak, silver medallist at the last week's Malaysia Open Super Series, said yesterday that he had sought sponsors by himself for years.

Last year, he signed a threeyear deal to become the face of Japanese sports products manufacturer Kumpoo only to learn later that the association was planning to sign with Yonex and give its players an ultimatum - either stay with the BAT and its sponsor or become an independent player.

Fellow shuttler Songphon Anugrittayawan added that the players no longer trusted the BAT, which had never sought their opinion on the decision to sign with sponsors.

The 16 players and coaches then inked an agreement on their decision to leave the BAT, with Boonsak warning that he would resign from the national team and pull out of the Thomas Cup and the Asian Games if "some" of the executives remained at the BAT.

Charoen responded to that ultimatum by issuing one of his own to the players and coaches: come back with a new decision within three days or be sacked from the national team.
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good going boonsak. BAT need you and the players/coaches, not the other way around

Charoen Wattanasin is too stupid and greedy. The players have been unhappy with his being president for a long time now. The team saw little of the sponsorship money, some can't travel and compete because of lack of funding due to misuse of the sponsorship money. He should resign from office already. It was Wattanasin's fault Siam Cement Group is not sponsoring the team anymore and set up their own team.

My take on this..

(i was going to post my 2.5 cents in one of the threads in the T&UC Preliminaries sub-forum but decided to just post my reply here)..

Anyway, i don't know if anyone else feels or see thes same thing or not (or it's just me??), but looking from last yr's (and even this yr's) episode w/ the INA national baddy camp's conflict with several of its players and now this, with TBA and the Thai national players leaving the national team, i'm sensing badminton is slowly beginning to move to a more professional mindset/system (ala tennis).

With sponsorships and now companies like Li-Ning flocking to the forefront to challenge Yonex dominance in badminton by offering tournament sponsorships and investing in players, players will have more options and choices to pick & choose which sponsors they could sign a deal with.

Who knows, this could be the revolution professional badminton has been waiting for..

*Hi Paul (Vtec101)! Good to see around in BC again. Where have you been? For a while i though you'd lost interest in BC already..

Hi Chris, how have you been? I'm doing good. I still lurk here once in awhile, tho not as much anymore. I just don't post anymore, but this subject got me very mad so I had to put my 2 cents in. Are you going to be at the LABC this saturday?

(i was going to post my 2.5 cents in one of the threads in the T&UC Preliminaries sub-forum but decided to just post my reply here)..

Anyway, i don't know if anyone else feels or see thes same thing or not (or it's just me??), but looking from last yr's (and even this yr's) episode w/ the INA national baddy camp's conflict with several of its players and now this, with TBA and the Thai national players leaving the national team, i'm sensing badminton is slowly beginning to move to a more professional mindset/system (ala tennis).**

With sponsorships and now companies like Li-Ning flocking to the forefront to challenge Yonex dominance in badminton by offering tournament sponsorships and investing in players, players will have more options and choices to pick & choose which sponsors they could sign a deal with.

Who knows, this could be the revolution professional badminton has been waiting for..

*Hi Paul (Vtec101)! Good to see around in BC again. Where have you been? For a while i though you'd lost interest in BC already..

**i'm not 100% convinced tho. In cases like BAT, BAM, etc, failure was due to poor management at the top. In china for instance, team sponsorship with LN is working really well, with some flexibility of extra incentive for certain key players. I think in thai's case, players/coaches quit the team because they got ripped off, not that team sponsorship is a bad business model. Quitting allow them to bypass the incompetent and greedy middleman (ie management).

In pro sport sponsorship like in tennis, there are managers, they are called player's agent but they work with the players and players tend to call the shots.

The Badminton Association of Thailand president Charoen Wattanasin, who is under fire from national players, said he is ready for a compromise on the question of sponsorship but warned that playing for the country must be the top priority of the players.

Thailand's elite players led by world No 12 Boonsak Ponsana, Sudket Prapakamol and coaches held a press conference on Wednesday to highlight the problems plaguing the association. They said they are clearly unhappy with the state of affairs and threatened to quit the national team if the problems are not solved.

Prof Charoen said that none of the players reported at the training camp in BAT's courts yesterday to prepare for the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup Asia Preliminary Zone tournament in Nakhon Ratchasima from February 22 to 28.

Charoen said he is disappointed by the players' decision, but still hoped that better sense will prevail. He said the association will never accept the letter of withdrawal from the players.

"The BAT has been regarded as the best association in terms of administration in the country. I will try my best to put things back in the right place. I'm ready to hold talks with the players and come to a decision that would satisfy all," he said.

"I will hold back the sponsorship deal, which I think, is the main cause of the problem. We at the BAT are doing things for the benefit of the players."

However, Boonsak, when asked whether he is ready to talk to Charoen, said, "No. It's not the time to talk."
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what a poor manager of Charoen Wattanasin.
He gave the team an ultimatum and then seeing the result, try to weasel out his bluff.
He still doesn't get it, he think the current problem is related to the team sponsorship deal.

Cooler, you are right. This has been an on going problem with the current board members of the association. There is a reason why the main sponsor, Siam Cement Group, quit giving money to the national team, and that is because the majority of the money doesn't get to the players or used to improve the training program. It's been over a year now that the players have complained about there's not enough money to send the players to various tournaments. If you looked at the recent tournaments, only a few players are being sent to each tournament and Boonsak paid his own way to Korea and Malaysia.

Cooler, you are right. This has been an on going problem with the current board members of the association. There is a reason why the main sponsor, Siam Cement Group, quit giving money to the national team, and that is because the majority of the money doesn't get to the players or used to improve the training program. It's been over a year now that the players have complained about there's not enough money to send the players to various tournaments. If you looked at the recent tournaments, only a few players are being sent to each tournament and Boonsak paid his own way to Korea and Malaysia.

then i have to say boonsak, sudket/saralee and MD team done really well considering the limited resource they have.

Players should not rely too much on their "father" (national association) to cater everything for them once they are "capable". But that doesnt mean they can "misbehave" when they are out there, the "father" must discipline them once a while.

In this case, i think the "father" is the one "misbehaving". So BAT, or rather Mr.Charoen, no harm in turning back and admit your mistakes. The way i see it, Boonsak, Songphon, Sudhet have proven their patriotism for the country. Time to let them fly and soar like an eagle?

...

..good catch..indeed, a good practical training as he was indeed a law student (or maybe still is??)..

Originally Posted by Vtec101

Hi Chris, how have you been? I'm doing good. I still lurk here once in awhile, tho not as much anymore. I just don't post anymore, but this subject got me very mad so I had to put my 2 cents in. Are you going to be at the LABC this saturday?

Off topic: This shows you're still indeed lurking around BC.
This Saturday, if i go, i might sneak in early because i've to be somewhere else during the opening hrs. If not Saturday, then maybe Sunday, time permitting.
Btw, mind briefly recapping/translating that interview?